Over recent years, the Top 14 has earned a reputation as the world’s premier club rugby competition. For the most part, this adoration stems from the staggering wealth of many of the French clubs and the role these funds play in attracting the world’s best rugby talent.
Week-in, week-out some pundit or another calls for rugby competitions around the world to be more like the Top 14.
Only a matter of weeks ago, Brendan Cannon called for radical reforms around player mobility and listed requirements that would transform Super Rugby into a sort of Southern Hemisphere Top 14.
Yet the Top 14 is not all it is cracked up to be.
French clubs may be wealthy, and their lists clogged with big-name stars, but at the heart of the Top 14 is a fundamental problem: the competition is neither engaging and engrossing.
In fact, French rugby is fundamentally flawed, due the Top 14’s approach to player mobility.
Based on merit, engaging and enjoyable sporting competitions function to determine – for participants and spectators – which sides are the better ones.
Whether it be based on my perspective as a former player or simply as a keen spectator, I approach each and every game I watch with the understanding the better side should win.
Moreover, if a sporting competition is properly administered, the better sides, by definition, will win.
Equally, I believe the very best sporting competitions should seek to minimise the scope for contests to be forgone conclusions before the game has even been started.
At the juncture of these two principles lies the failing of the Top 14.
So far over this season, home sides in the Top 14 have an 84% winning percentage. This means the very best sides in French rugby are routinely beaten by much poorer sides due to home/away advantage alone.
This stat is a staggering figure, particularly when compared to other domestic rugby competitions.
For instance, homes sides in the Aviva Premiership have a winning percentage of around 56%. Similarly, home sides in the Pro 12 and Super Rugby have a winning percentage of 58% and 57%, respectively.
These winning percentages are far more in keeping with the notion the best sporting competitions offer a reasonable opportunity for either side to emerge victorious.
In other words, in Aviva Premiership, Pro 12, and Super Rugby, home advantage does not allow poor sides to routinely beat good sides.
In fact, in these competitions, on average, the better sides does in fact win the majority of the time – even when they are playing away.
So why does the Top 14 display such a strong home advantage? Historically, a number of explanations have been offered.
The most common of these are as follows:
1) French fans are rabid and hostile.
2) France is a ‘large’ country and teams are required to travel ‘long’ distances.
3) Officials in French rugby consistently ‘favour’ the home side.
However, each one of these explanations fail to hold under any sort of rigorous scrutiny.
Firstly, French fans may well be passionate, but I genuinely doubt they are anymore committed or rabid than South African, New Zealand, Irish or Welsh supporters. Try playing a match in Pretoria, Dublin or Cardiff if you don’t agree with me!
Therefore, why don’t clubs in Wales, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand win 84% of their home games?
Secondly, sides in the Top 14 do travel considerable distances compared to their European club counterparts, but this travel pales into comparison to Super Rugby.
There a few trips more gruelling in professional sport than a mid-season trip to South Africa! Using this logic, South African should never be beaten at home.
Although it’s hard to win over there, South African sides only win around 65 per cent of home games against non-South African sides – nowhere near 84 per cent.
Finally, while French rugby has historically had a reputation for questionable adjudication, these problems are largely a thing of the past.
As increased financial backing has flooded into the Top 14, the competition has had to become far more transparent.
Top 14 officials are now, give or take the odd call, on par with referees in the other major domestic rugby competitions.
If the Top 14 home advantage is not a function of these factors, then why do poor French sides win so consistently at home?
The real answer is somewhat more nuanced than the above explanations.
The home side is far more likely to win in French rugby due to the competition’s liberal labour market. In short, the ability for players to move fluidly into and around the Top 14 is both the competition’s major drawcard and structural weakness.
The logic proceeds as follows: Rather than teams – in the true sense of the world – Top 14 sides are really just loose aggregations of talented individual rugby players. Stars sign with and leave clubs like Clermont, Stade Francais and Toulon on a regular basis.
This means French clubs tend to possess performance records more volatile than their counterparts in the rest of Europe and the Southern Hemisphere.
Case in point: On a good day, a Top 14 side like Toulon can shoot the lights out and run up big scores against any side in the world; on a bad day, a side like Toulon will lose – away – to a minnow like Bordeaux, Oyonnax or Brive.
Furthermore, as aggregations of individual talent, Top 14 clubs are – for the most part – devoid, on and off the field, of any meaningful unity or cohesion.
As such, these sides tend to fall apart or struggle when added strain or pressure arises – like dealing with injuries, off-field instability, and, most importantly, playing away from home.
When players are largely unfamiliar with one another – as is the case in the Top 14 – set plays are botched, passes dropped and defensive structures confused in the face of hostile away crowds and the strain of life on the road.
In short, teams that don’t know each other are terrible away from home.
In something of an interesting case study, the two most ‘internal’ French clubs, Clermont and Toulouse, possess winning records more consistent with a powerful English or Southern Hemisphere club.
It is no coincidence these two sides, although open to trading for foreign players, tend to place a priority of recruiting and developing local talent.
In short, good French sides – compared to their Super Rugby equivalents – struggle away from home due to the Top 14’s obsession with absolute player mobility.
So the next time you read an article calling for South African or New Zealand players to compete for Australian franchises, or you stumble upon a forum thread gushing about the next big thing in French rugby, think to yourself – do I really want to follow a competition where even seemingly ‘good’ sides consistently fall apart when they have to play on the road?
Ben is a retired former Wallaby front rower who has been asked about his neck injury more than a million times by his reckoning. Yes, it’s fine, thanks for asking. Ben was lucky enough to be involved with, mainly as a hanger on, some wonderful sides at the Brumbies and Wallabies. He works in coaching, analysis and media and has started his own analysis company Gainline. Ben’s company tracks teams recruitment of players and how it impacts on their results.
Katipo
Guest
It would be great to see the Wallabies undertake an old school tour of France playing against the Top 14 teams and 3 tests against France. Wishful thinking I suppose.
Malcolm Dreaneen
Roar Pro
Good article. The only thing I'd disagree with is the claim French home crowds are as rabid and hostile as other places. French crowds are highly partisan, far more than exists elsewhere in the rugby world. Their crowds are the closest to football crowds rugby gets. There's massive cultural dislike between clubs like Perpignan (Catalan and generally pro-Spanish/anti French) on the one hand, and Biarritz (Basque and generally anti-Spanish/pro French) on the other, that is a reflection of divisions in history that go back hundreds of years. Montpellier hate Toulouse for historical reasons. Toulouse hate Toulon. Everyone hates the Parisian clubs for cultural reasons. La Rochelle and Montauban's place in the religious history of France is a source of vindictive hostility, and of course the Basque derby between Biarritz and Bayonne is always a matter of life and death. In fact, if you wanted to cross the Mafia with rugby union, just watch the Top 14.
Daddy Daycare
Guest
If the stats are true (generally people are agreeing with that fact that French teams have a very poor away record) then wouldn't you think some of the owners who poor bucket loads of money into these teams be concerned. I am assuming that these blokes made their money with sound business decisions. One would hope that this would transfer into there passion also. It seems to me that it will only take one owner to have a little bit of long term vision and create a dynasty for their club. If the argument is that this is the way French rugby has always worked then let them p&ss their money against the wall...... as they say C'est La Vie.
peeeko
Roar Guru
And the Sydney media has gone crazy about supposed poor nrl crowds
Gavin Melville
Roar Pro
That's a tough one to answer, as the French Teams play more than other French Teams. So the non-French would, by assumption, have differing attitudes to home/away. Also, the French don't care so much about the Heineken as do the other countries - they'd rather win their Top 14. As for the Amlin, I only think the teams in the Amlin worry about that and even then, not very much at all.
goodNumber10
Guest
Playing in France i can tell you the league doesn't matter in the same way it does to other sports - including other rugby leagues such as the Aviva premiership where winnign the league actually counts for something to most people. With the french it's all about timing, they will push hard towards the end of the league, and they count on themselves getting points at home on getting into a position to push for the playoffs. A better test of your theory would be to check the win/loss stats in the first half vs the 2nd half when people are pushing for a play of place, and then within the play offs - is it still such a high win at home ratio? How does the Win at home lose on the road ratio hold up in the Heineken cup?
Mike
Guest
"but at the heart of the Top 14 is a fundamental problem: the competition is neither engaging and engrossing." I agree. This is reflected in their poor TV revenues and abysmal attendance figures. "Moreover, if a sporting competition is properly administered, the better sides, by definition, will win." That's a relief. Upsets are soooo unsettling. :)
Gavin Melville
Roar Pro
This year, we have Super Rugby at 17/22 home wins - 77% - substantially in excess of the Super Rugby Stat of 57% quoted I know that in 2013, of the 125 games 82 were Home Wins, 40 were aways and there were 3 draws. I make that 66% Homes. Given that you've likely done a lot more analysis than me, looking back more years, and that there must be numbers to balance these recent ones in excess of your 57% then I suggest that there is a trend in Super Rugby from a low Home-Win % to a higher one. Does that mean there are a lot more French players in the "Super"? For the record, I've seen a fair bit of Top 14 and I reckon your conclusions are wrong, and agree with many of your detractors above.
Calum
Guest
I agree. Best atmosphere I've ever been at (any sport) was for Perpignan vs Toulon at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona. Complete and utter bedlam.
Ras
Guest
"Firstly, French fans may well be passionate, but I genuinely doubt they are anymore committed or rabid than South African, New Zealand, Irish or Welsh supporters. Try playing a match in Pretoria, Dublin or Cardiff if you don’t agree with me!" We are talking about club rugby though, just having passionate rugby fans in general does not = intimidating club crowds. You are willingly comparing apples with oranges. No one would say Cardiff, or even dare I say it many NZ Super rugby grounds, are particularly intimidating places for a club/province side to visit.
RAF
Guest
Ben your story reminds me of another story from many years ago regarding the passion of the supporters of club/region rugby in France. Whilst at uni i worked at a pub with the late John Woodgate who had returned from a year or two playing in France. John was captain of Australian U/21 in 1980 and played for Wests in Brisbane for many years, a great bloke and had great outlook on life. he passed away last year - far too young. He told me many stories of his time in France and in particular the fierceness of the fans. He told how at a home game it was compulsory for all players to return to the clubhouse after a game. He said he was staggered by the amount of abuse the players would receive from the supporters if they had lost and how knowledgeable they were about the game. He said that entry was quite expensive to even club games so after a game the supporters felt, because of the money they were spending, they had a right to vent their spleen (within reason) back at the club after a game. He said he was quite astonished to be bailed up by supporters after he had a bad game and told what he did wrong right down to what minute of the game. However, he said, after a good win you never put your hand in your pocket all night.
Tigranes
Guest
Ben Have you ever heard of the spirit of the clock tower...this explains why French club teams play a lot better at home rather than away A kiwi player, Simon Daniel who played for Montpellier, amongst other clubs, wrote a book about playing rugby in France, and explains this.
Adrien
Guest
Culturally, rugby in France has never attracted big crowds, just look at the NRL, they attract higher crowds while there are far less people in queensland and nsw than France. Not to mention the AFL which has a small geographical fanbase but gets amazing crowds. However i live in a town with a population of 100k and you have 2 stadiums of 12k+ capacity which are maybe 400m away and generally get 10k+ crowd for both league and union games, not to mention it's the country's poorer area. But i guess we are an exception...
sheek
Roar Guru
Steve, I'm not entirely sure what it is you're railing against. For example, I consider the AFL to be one of the greatest domestic comps anywhere. Sure, the AFL don't have to worry about producing players for a national comp, but they still need to ensure that sufficient talent emerges to keep the AFL strong. Feeding a national team would be icing on the comp. That said, I see a national comp as providing a two-pronged service - one is to provide the domestic market with a comp to get their teeth into & secondly, to prepare players for national representation. The great thing about the AFL is that clubs get a 2-3 window to win a premiership. Miss the window & the opportunity passes to someone else. Unlike many European football leagues, whereby the same powerful clubs dominate year-in, year-out. I can only repeat what I said in my previous post - "all that glitters is not gold" I also agree with Ben's basic premise that the Top 14 is fundamentally flawed.
Adrien
Guest
Wow crowds numbers are falling at a huge pace! However i think it's because they don't play games at Stade de France anymore. I remember in the first years they gave away thousands of tickets to a lot of clubs to allow them to go to the games but it still generated a profit but nowadays people no longer travel to this stadium, now the novelty effect is gone and as a result we see very few games played in big stadiums. Strong economic crisis doesn't help though.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Well 'profitability' is more and more irrelevant these days as clubs are bought by billionaires who put their own money on the table so even if the club doesn't make any profit they still have a $150M envelope to buy players anyway. Am not saying its good, but its a reality for most clubs whether they are Barca, Paris, Man U or Toulon, Toulouse, Castres etc. Toulon needs Boudjellal's money. How different is it from Clermont who survives thanks to Michelin or Castres with Pierre Fabre Laboratories? what I mean is that most teams live off private funds, whether its one bloke or a company it doesnt change the fact most clubs in pro sport in Europe are in the same situation. Barca or Man U or Clermont are no better than Chelsea, Paris or Toulon imo although I understand than many ppl, especially southerners who are far from European reality, think its more glamorous to have always been rich (like Barca, Real, Toulouse etc) than to be a 'nouveau riche'. I personally don't see much difference.
AndyS
Guest
You do realise that those French teams generally represent towns and regions, right? If there were rich entrepreneurs trying to create something like the Top 14, it would look exactly like the NRC. I wouldn't have much issue with that either, so long as SR remained to insulate the national side from the sort of club v country issues that the NH suffers from.
Tane Mahuta
Guest
Australia, as it stands, is safe from an influx of imports. The reason, they cant afford them. Sure, there are a few Kiwi and SA prospects that Australia has poached to bolster its player pool but there are very few "name players" that Australia or New Zealand could afford or, in most cases, persuede to give up international ambitions. The truth is that the players that Australia can afford are generally at a lower level than what is available at home. European and Japanese clubs pay more for players no matter what level they are at, generally, so why would players take a pay cut to move to Australia? There needs to be other contributing factors, as there was for Haskell, Ciprianni and Michilack. Imo the IRB, Rupa or whoever should pay players from PI, Arg and Africa a retainer to stay in the SH comps and make themselves available for international duties for their country of birth. There should also be an effort to form a PI origin team in a similar way to the Lions that tours the NH every 4 years. Players such as Speight, Halai, Kaino, Timani, Sivivatu should be made available. Anyway Ive gotten off track.
Crash Ball2
Guest
To a fault. Ewan would have named you in the weekend match day squad.
Ben Darwin
Expert
Thanks nick there is no question we are taking in with the law of averages. On average these clubs use more players they created themselves than others, The earlier a player get to your club the better they do. Messi is not from Barca but arrived at age 13. There is no question that Stade Francais are winning as you can always buy your way out of any situation. my question is, is PSG now profitable? Ben